The present invention pertains to data transmission among networks in a communication system and more particularly to the routing of bearer traffic among these networks of the communication system.
Call processing in modern communications is typically divided into two segments. First, the networks of the communication system use various signaling schemes to set up a path from an originator to a terminator. The second portion of the call is the sending of bearer traffic, whether the bearer traffic be data or human voice. The signaling portion of the call is governed by the rules of each of the networks and call engines of the network. This signaling process may become complex due to roaming mobile telephone subscribers.
The amount of signaling information transmitted through the communication system is quite minimal as compared to the amount bearer traffic. Therefore, efficient transmission paths for bearer traffic greatly improves overall communication system efficiency and transmission capability, and improves how resources may be used in the network.
As an example of a mobile communication system bearer traffic routing issue, mobile subscribers homed in one geographic area but roaming in another distant geographic area may have their data routed from the second area to the first area and back to the second area again. This is an inefficient routing and such bearer traffic routing exhibits an effect called tromboneing. That is the system and various networks of the system must use greater portions of their switching and transmission capability to service such a call. As a result, such bearer traffic routing is inefficient as wasting communication system resources and increasing delays between the subscribers.
Accordingly, it would be highly advantageous to have a method for efficiently routing bearer traffic between various types of networks and geographic areas in a communication system.